[Jagged Alliance Online] Suggestions

Post some suggestions to help the devs figure out what we want, and what could be better.

One feature I’d love to see implemented would be some extra info when hovering over an enemy: Information about distance and angle. It’s nice to see how characters are armored, but sometimes (near the cutoffs, basically) it’s not quite clear what part of the armor a merc is aiming for, front side or back. Highlighting the armor zone that the computer considers is facing the shooter would be a great help. As for distance, an extra line above the hit chance and crit chance would be great. Maybe show the distance and the weapon range in parentheses next to it. Something like:
11.6 (8 – 14)
56%
13%
Right now finding the ‘sweet spot’ is an educated guess.

Highlighting visible tiles would help in some specific case, particularly when preparing an ambush. Reciprocally, being able to determine which tiles a given tile is visible from would help tremendously when trying to place mercs around a target.

A change to game mechanics: AP rollover. Right now, characters with 3k, 3k+1 or 3k+2 AP (for k any integer) walk at the same speed, the main difference is that having 1 or 2 extra points means having to use them to look around at the end of every turn, or losing them. Allowing characters to roll over a few unused AP from one round to the next would alleviate this problem. Letting up to, say, 5 points roll over would not change much to the game balance, it would simply reduce waste. I don’t know how easy it would be to implement, although seeing that AP per turn can already be made variable (as per speed bonus in PvP, for instance) it seems there is already part of the structure in place to allow it.

Mission save: I don’t know if the server is hungover or what, but it seems to be dropping my connection a lot this year (i.e. today). Allowing players to reconnect to a mission when they get disconnected would be a great help. Right now if the connection is lost for any reason the mission has to be restarted from the beginning. Saving the state of the mission server side when a player drops and reloading the state when they reconnect would be an awesome convenience.

Game balance: Toning down pistols. I’m thinking of the Automag V in particular. Even the common version of that pistol puts every SMG and assault rifle of comparable level to shame. Pistols in general deal more damage per bullet than machine guns. It is ridiculous.

Realistic movement cost: Upping the cost of running in diagonal from 2 AP to 3 AP would make the running range more realistic (a ‘circle’ instead of a square). Similarly, upping the walking cost from 3 AP to 4 AP in diagonals would help with that movement mode.

This is a great game, I love the Jagged Alliance franchise and appreciate the nods to the previous games. My only suggestions are to:
1} Include a message alerting the player when a portion of the game has failed to load. I’m on a relatively crappy little laptop and have no problems with the load time when everything works right, the only time it takes longer than 35 seconds (15 seconds for missions) to load is when it is not going to load at all due to some connection malfunction. A pop-up message in-game would probably save you a lot of the grief in the comments over the load time.

2} Make the medic/Dr. mercs matter somehow (more efficient at healing others in the field, and/or making healing at your medical center more effective ect.)

3} Let us re-fill high-capacity ammo cases we already own with ammo boxes we pick up, or buy, as long as it is all the same type of ammo. I may be slightly obsessive but it irritates me that I can’t maximize carrying capacity on my mercs :)

4} This one is more of just a question: I see ladders, and piles of detritus that appear to be climbable leading to rooftops… is the engine of this game capable of utilizing multiple planes?

Melee weapon/class with no ready cost and high crit rate (in my imagination at least would be like that :P)
Grenade and rocket launchers weapons would be cool =O
Daily prizes for playing orr daily missions that gives Gold bars (even if they are very hard to earn)
A little balance issues… mostly regarding AP… getting extra AP is pretty hard and almost unusefull since it ends up being wasted.. maybe if it was easier to get it would enable you to get an extra shot of gun or an extra movement point
More info… of how armor work, to know if enemys got armor, how much damages enemys weapons have and how much range and AP too… also know if the enemy has seen you is waiting to interrupt or havent seen you/have seen you but Dont got AP for interrupt
Finally put a way to buy perm Mercs with normal money, even if its costly… i understand the premium currency and aprove the advantage of these things but give a chance to get some things with effort¡

My number one main suggestion would be that when you are deciding to move a merc, you should be able to see his field of vision highlighted and also his attack range highlighted, to basically help decide how to set up ambushes, like the OP says

Thanks for all the suggestions. While melee and grenades are on our to do list for a long time, we also acknowledge the need for better communications of range, visibility etc.
We are constantly trying to improve on the game and a new patch including rebalancing of classes, daily return screen and loading time improvements is in the making.
Keep the ideas coming!

I bought the Clint Eastwood themed hat and jacket (the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly), but they don’t display on my character in the paper doll, or during missions, at all. It’s like I’m not wearing anything.

melee weapons for rifles, sniper rifles and assault rifles such as the bayonet those guns are useless at short range needs balancing so commandos won’t mow riflemen down easily. like the unrealistic low accuracy of the guns, melee weapons will also miss or be dodge. MAXRANGEWOULD BE 4, stabbing at 4 range away, Hacking at 3 range way and slashing at 2-1 range away. AP cost would be a constant 3 AP. damage from melee attacks can also be reduced by armor vest but the damage done to the vest is heavy damage.

Melee weapons such as combat knife, Bowie knife, trench knife for commando, heavy gunner class. same attack, AP and damage system concept with the bayonet except that the maximum range of knives would be 2 because it is not attach to a long gun

melee weapons will occupy second spot of weapons or the secondary weapon slot of a character or it can be crafted and fitted on the weapon…

we need other source of game cash income other than buying gold, doing war-zone scenario and doing missions. as players goes to a higher level, the expense in amo, equipment repair(especially this), merc hiring, and healing merc goes up. not to mention success rate in repairing sometime fail even though the success bar say it was high. maybe 5000 game cash minimum prize per day (and that is enough to cover amo and some repair expense) I’m suggesting like a spin a wheel type like reward system – some other browser games have it too, a system where players get rewarded for daily log in and player gets some sort of bonus if he met the required days of consecutive log in.

I love the game, but (lack of) daytime visibility just annoys the heck out of me. I’m ok with my low-perception mercs being surprised by nearby stealthy enemies. It’s just silly, however, when I have to be within a few steps of an enemy to see them at all, despite facing in their direction and knowing they’re there because they’ve already fired on me. Furthermore, it’s inconsistent that I can see them with no trouble from farther away as long as some other team member can see them.

Maybe it would be sensible to distinguish being able to see enemies from being able to notice them when unaware of their presence. Or maybe stealth / camouflage just needs to be toned down, at least for daylight missions.

There are two main problems with vision. One is the apparent blindness of low perc mercs, who couldn’t see an enemy if it shot them in the face from 5 tiles away in the middle of an empty road (which happens!). The corollary of this problem is that when a merc has high perc, it doesn’t matter if their enemies are standing or crouching, or if they have partial cover: they will spot them. In fact, partial cover provides such a minimal benefit that it’s usually not worth pursuing.

The second problem is that the AI seems to spot the player’s mercs when they fire, as they will walk toward the shooter and fire at them, but act all surprised (red exclamation mark) if their target gets up and runs away. So the AI is getting visibly confused as to what it can see and what it can’t. And then again, sometimes AI-controlled opponents won’t do anything when shot at except stand there like nothing’s happening. This mostly happens when there isn’t a clear path for them to get to the shooter, or when a barrel/comrade just got shot to bits and they’ve made it their top priority to get to the tile where it happened and investigate, no matter what else is going on around them.

-repair costs WAY too much, given it takes a significant chunk out of every mission cash reward, and redoing missions typically barely covers repair costs. hospital can be avoided most times, but almost never can you avoid needing to repair and maintain your gear. it becomes a HUGE cash sink the higher level you get.

-building upgrade costs are insanely high. also, it seems pointless to have to buy individual upgrade components that you actually never find on missions. either include those as parts of missions, or eliminate them from being requirements to upgrade. this will reduce the costs significantly.

-rewards for replaying previous missions (cash rewards) should be much higher than they currently are. sorry, but the idea that you are going to go back and play lower level missions to build up a cash supply is ludicrous.

-gold for insurance on crafting… OK. 9 gold is too much. make it 5.

-crafting resources should cost way less gold. make ALL crafting resources available from the start, but have ones where you have reached their “level” become available as a cash purchase. this way, those that want to rush things will be paying gold, those that are fine with waiting will at least be able to do some crafting when they reach the right level. remember, replaying missions to hope for a craft drop is a CASHSINK the way it is set up now.

-a game guide that shows all the weapons, crafting recipes, armor, etc, should be available somewhere so we can plan when and where to spend gold, or save up for a specific item.

I have yet to even be able to get a match; probably because too few people playing.

still:

-somewhere in the multiplayer menu, show everyone that is currently awaiting a match, and let US pick who we want to match up with by clicking on them in the list. this lets us choose what kind of fight we want, or whether we want to fight a friend, etc.

The search and destroy pvp map just doesn’t work as intended, with teams fighting for map control and defending key locations, because with similar levels you can just run for it and destroy everything before they can kill you. I am lvl 42 now and every time I played the map with someone similar level it worked. To fix that you could make it so it takes a lot more turns to destroy the radars (several layers or higher hp explosives) or change it to some sort of capture the flag thing, where you have to stay on the location for x turns. It just isn’t fun the way it is right now.

After reading all of the comments, i would like to give my few cents to it.

1) I agree on the distance and weapon range. This would be helpful. But on the other hand, you will get a feeling for the weapon range with time… therefore it`s not that needed… and it wasn`t needed in the previous jagged alliance franchise either. For a reason i guess. Personally, I think that handling your right weapons range and therefore its ability should (!) require some skill!

2) I disagree with the AP roll-over. This would basically result in unfair pvp-battles. Everybody would camp at their given location on a large corridor and simply wait for the enemy to come up, and put these +AP points to use.

3) I disagree on pistols being to powerful. I am against a tone-down of pistols! They are the only weapon that keeps my snipers from being mowed down if the enemy mercs move in. Optimum and minimum range is usually gone within a round. People will get to know this problem later in the game, when every enemy carries high armor (even on the head).
P.s.: SMGs still do a heck load of damage… it`s not every single bullet that counts, but who cares, if you can fire 15 at once at a guy (plus you will get a LOT of headshots, which pistols won`t be able to provide —> good for gold medals. Bad for players who don`t have a commando within their ranks)?!

4) Realisitc movement costs would make missions take forever. Please leave it the way it is. It was fine this way in the former versions of the game and it is still fine now.

5) I remember that there used to be knifes, machetes, hatchets etc. in the games predecessors. It would be great if we could use them (maybe by making the pistol skill a pistol/melee skill since both are short range weapons).

6) @ Kirbopher, you can easily see if the enemy MERC has armor on. Health = red bar, armor = blue bar. Usually e.g. gunners have more armor than e.g. snipers.
You can also know what kind of weapons and armor the enemy will wear on the next mission you are about to take by taking a look at the missions info…. If a missions says that MERCS with a level between for example 43 and 45 are required, it is highly likely that the enemy will wear weapons and armor according to this level, meaning weapons between 43-45. If you mess up on a mission, you are also free to play it again. The only differance is that this time you will know how many enemies there are and what type of enemies to expect….

7) I believe that weapon skills MUST be required to use a weapon. It`s just realistic. And it gives the game more dept if you have to carefully choose what MERCS to have on the next mission. There are 7 possible slots for MERCs. That should be enough.

8) I agree that it would be nice if melee weapons could be attached by crafting to guns. But then, on the other hand, i believe they would become too powerful… shortening the distance between a sniper and yourself wouldn`t help that much then…

9) A daily reward for coming back to the game would be nice. Maybe you could get 1000 Dollars on the first day for coming back, 1200 on the second, 1400 on the third, 1600 on the forth, 1800 on the fifth and 2000 on the sixth. And on the 7th day you would get 5 gold. I think that would be enough to be a teaser for the players to come back and still too less to gain masses of gold quickly… 20 gold a month if you log in every single day for a month doesnt seem to be that much concerning the in-game prices.

10) I believe that the repair costs take up too steep, too. Right now, I`m burning up felt 25% just for the repair of used weapons… not even talking about armor. Maybe a plus of 10% on the top of the missions`dollar reward would make these costs easier to bear.

11) I disagree with the suggestions on vision. If I have low preception (meaning if i dont wear my glasses and dont sharp my senses) it would be very hard to know where the guy was who just shot at me… I prefer this version instead of just being hit without a feeling for the player from where the shot came from.
If your vision is low and it affects your MERCs skills, then put points into it. So did and do I. If I put points into perception (and stealth), I did this for a reason. Which is not to be easily spotted and to spot others earlier. Of course I dont have that much health etc. which your MERCs have (because you invested your skill points on other abilities). In my point of view it`s just fair and only adds to the dept of the game.
Personally I like a game with a challange in which you have to think about what you do and how you skill your MERCs!

Short list on my suggestions:
.
- daily log in reward in dollar going slightly up every day, tiny gold reward of 5 gold on 7th day
- melee/granades
- harder search & destroy pvp
- either more cash reward or less rapair costs/higher repair chance
- being able to see if there is somebody currently looking for someone to fight with in the battleground.
- make the chances higher to heal/repair successfully
- after sending a private mail to somebody, keep the “w/…..”. Copy & paste works well, but it would be kind still.
- enable us to exchange stuff between our mercenaries during the missions for AP (e.g. 2AP).
- make it possible to exchange MERCs after you hired them. (I thought that mercenaries are hired for a period of time so as to do their job. Once they are done, you should be able to exchange them – without loosing all of the levels gained with the mercenary you played for days)
.
[The last point actually bothers me a bit because i can hardly finish a game with a silver star anymore, because I have 3 snipers and 1 gunner and I can`t get the critical and headshot achievements because I lack a commando…]
.
Besides, GREAT game and a more than worth successor of the Jagged Alliance series! Superb job!!!
Marked: A true fan!

After reading all of the comments, i would like to give my few cents to it.

2) I disagree with the AP roll-over. This would basically result in unfair pvp-battles. Everybody would camp at their given location on a large corridor and simply wait for the enemy to come up, and put these +AP points to use.

Oh yes, 5 AP would make such a huge difference :rolleyes:. Meh, I’d even be fine with a cap at 2AP for rollovers, just so those AP aren’t actually wasted.

4) Realisitc movement costs would make missions take forever. Please leave it the way it is. It was fine this way in the former versions of the game and it is still fine now.

Yes, increasing movement cost by 33% when walking diagonally would make missions take forever. Hyperbole much?
Seriously, right now shooting range is computed based on coordinates, therefore in a circular norm, whereas movement is computed in a square norm. It’s unrealistic and leads to exploits, such as approaching form the diagonal if you want to engage at short range (closing in takes less movement) but along the cardinal directions if you want to snipe (they will need more movement to close in on you once they see you).

7) I believe that weapon skills MUST be required to use a weapon. It`s just realistic. And it gives the game more dept if you have to carefully choose what MERCS to have on the next mission. There are 7 possible slots for MERCs. That should be enough.

Funny you should say that in one post and in the next: “i can hardly finish a game with a silver star anymore, because I have 3 snipers and 1 gunner and I can`t get the critical and headshot achievements because I lack a commando…”
But yea, weapon skill requirements aren’t too steep at all. Way to be consistent there. Not to mention I really don’t see how it is realistic that someone who knows how to use one kind of say, SMG, just cannot pick up a different model. Where you see the “realism” in that is a mystery to me…

10) I believe that the repair costs take up too steep, too. Right now, I`m burning up felt 25% just for the repair of used weapons… not even talking about armor. Maybe a plus of 10% on the top of the missions`dollar reward would make these costs easier to bear.

Meh, I thought so for a while, but it’s just two contracts with a lot of armored enemies that give that impression. Once you get to mission 45 it’s cash central all over again. I don’t mind the repair costs at all, but I do find the repair manipulations to be cumbersome, particularly having to juggle between the merc window and the store window when I don’t happen to have enough repair items, or not the right ones, or just failing the repair repeatedly.

@Ace_blue:
I believe it`s only normal that you can`t shoot a minigun efficently if you`re a sniper. ;-) Ok, I agree that it would be realisitc that guys can pick up every weapon they want to, maybe I simply like the idea of classes and that you can skill your guys towards the weapons they should shoot. It`s just my fault that I thought that 3 snipers and 1 guy with a assault rifle is a great setup… at least it was in the beginning… ;-)
I somehow still hope that I don`t have to set back 1 of my snipers to their beginning level and that they will let us recruit different guys once their contact ended… with a merc at level 47, having him reset to level 8?! would be a HUGE blow…

Right now I am actually doing level 45 and I finally do make money again.
Repairs usually are 1200 – 1500$ [2x repair kits (1232$)+ x] for me, heals are 1200-1400$ [2x trauma kits (800$) + x], which is ok now.
.
But on the other hand, grinding myself up with 13.500$ per mission (minus healing troops + repairing equipment —> approximately 10.000$/mission) while looking at 210.900 for the upgrade for the storage room level 5 and interior which cost 105.500$ (NRA Gun Locker), 110.900$ (Large Lockers), 56.800$ (Pharma Locker), 116.300$ (Tool Cabinet) and 73.000$ (Football Cabinet), prices do seem a bit steep for me…

Don’t upgrade the storage unless you are done upgrading everything else or you have too much cash. All the storage upgrades do is give more space to store up stuff. I went all the way to storage level 5 before stopping to think that maybe there were better things to do with money than spend it on something just because it’s there.

Also, don’t forget that junk weapon drops in mission 45 sell for around $1700 a pop. Pick up 3 or 4 in a mission (really not that unusual when you’re killing ~20 people per mission) and that’s an extra 50% reward, much better than even golding the mission.

As for snipers not shooting miniguns let me tell you that I have a commando who has 100 in sniper rifles. You CAN spec a character to use any weapon you want if you pick him up early enough in his career. The problem is that missions that require using one particular class of weapon to get the gold medal are VERY hard with the basic weapons of that type, so you need a team of specialists. So far, at high level, I have seen 6/7 weapon classes represented in the requirements, and you can’t have a team of 4 where everyone is a specialist of 6/7 weapon types. So your choices are to either do the mission with crap weapons and use every dirty trick you can (pulling, abusing the geography, etc…) or fire your mercs to hire a bunch of specialists just for that mission, and then cry because all the levels you put in your team are lost.

That’s worth changing since it goes against the game’s own paradigm, which is to encourage the player to form a team of mercenaries and train them up.

It would be nice if lower level MERCs would get an additional xp boost, if higher enemies are defeated.

[For example, my level 10 MERC get`s the same amount for experiance as my level 49 MERCs if a level 50 enemy is killed. This way it will sadly take me forever to get him/her to a level where he/she is useful :( ]

1.Grenades and Flash-bangs can create a whole new aspect and strategy to the game, it can open up a new skills field and also be implemented into other skills; for instance, at first the accuracy of throwing will be low until upgrades and the distance can be farther by upgrading your strength, new add-ons like flash deterrent visors can be created for equipment.
2.Allow a player to spin his unit in a 360 degree angle so he can see all aspects of his units clothing, equipment.
3.Their is a JAO flag at the HQ their can also be a personal customizable flag that, as players level up, can open new materials to use on their flag.
4.Double clicking, or something similar, the unit icon takes you directly to the unit you clicked.
5.The game needs to freeze when it is not on the main tab, to many times have I clicked something when on a different page that messed up my game on a totally different tab. Maybe adding a little background music. COOP matches, missions.
6.Marketplace for weapons, cash, gold, resources.
7.Increased Backpack slots per unit.
8.In-game automated turrets
9.Zoom-out and rotate map, at times it is nice to be able to see the whole picture so you can plan ahead instead of having to scroll everywhere, and rotating helps to find cover where a wall may block your view.
10.Ammo should be able to combine so there are not 10 different boxs but none of them are full. Example: 9mm ammo: 1 50stack box has 20 bullets and another 50 stack box has 25 bullets, they should be able to combine to be 1 box with 45 bullets in it.
11.Preview clothing,weapons,equipment. (when a player does not care about the effects of the gear but just wants to make a unit look cool this gives them the chance to preview how a unit will look with the item before it is bought)

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